Economic Cost Analysis of West Nile Virus Outbreak, Sacramento County, California, USA, 2005

Aerial spraying is cost-effective

Petrophysical, Geochemical, and Hydrological Evidence for Extensive Fracture-Mediated Fluid and Heat Transport in the Alpine Fault's Hanging-Wall Damage Zone

International audienceFault rock assemblages reflect interaction between deformation, stress, temperature, fluid, and chemical regimes on distinct spatial and temporal scales at various positions in the crust. Here we interpret measurements made in the hanging‐wall of the Alpine Fault during the second stage of the Deep Fault Drilling Project (DFDP‐2). We present observational evidence for extensive fracturing and high hanging‐wall hydraulic conductivity (∼10−9 to 10−7 m/s, corresponding to permeability of ∼10−16 to 10−14 m2) extending several hundred meters from the fault's principal slip zone. Mud losses, gas chemistry anomalies, and petrophysical data indicate that a subset of fractures intersected by the borehole are capable of transmitting fluid volumes of several cubic meters on time scales of hours. DFDP‐2 observations and other data suggest that this hydrogeologically active portion of the fault zone in the hanging‐wall is several kilometers wide in the uppermost crust. This finding is consistent with numerical models of earthquake rupture and off‐fault damage. We conclude that the mechanically and hydrogeologically active part of the Alpine Fault is a more dynamic and extensive feature than commonly described in models based on exhumed faults. We propose that the hydrogeologically active damage zone of the Alpine Fault and other large active faults in areas of high topographic relief can be subdivided into an inner zone in which damage is controlled principally by earthquake rupture processes and an outer zone in which damage reflects coseismic shaking, strain accumulation and release on interseismic timescales, and inherited fracturing related to exhumation

Net Risk: A Risk Assessment of Long-Lasting Insecticide Bed Nets Used for Malaria Management

Despite the demonstrated ability of bed nets that have been factory-impregnated with long-lasting insecticides (LLINs) to protect people from malaria and despite the ambitious plans for their widespread use, the health risks from the LLINs themselves have not been adequately investigated and reported in the peer-reviewed science literature. Here, we use a probabilistic risk assessment approach to estimate the risks to Africans from inhalation, dermal, and oral exposures to the newer LLINs with permethrin, α-cypermethrin, or deltamethrin as the insecticide active ingredient. We estimated exposures to LLINs using 17 age groups to incorporate different body weights and sleeping behaviors. Risk quotients (exposure divided by toxic threshold) at the 50th and 90th percentiles for non-cancer risks were < 1.0 for lifetime adjusted risk and all youth and adult age groups. Risk quotients for infants and toddlers (0–3 years) and child groups from 3 to 10 years were ≥ 1.0 for specific bed nets

Genome-wide association of polycystic ovary syndrome implicates alterations in gonadotropin secretion in European ancestry populations

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common, highly heritable complex disorder of unknown aetiology characterized by hyperandrogenism, chronic anovulation and defects in glucose homeostasis. Increased luteinizing hormone relative to follicle-stimulating hormone secretion, insulin resistance and developmental exposure to androgens are hypothesized to play a causal role in PCOS. Here we map common genetic susceptibility loci in European ancestry women for the National Institutes of Health PCOS phenotype, which confers the highest risk for metabolic morbidities, as well as reproductive hormone levels. Three loci reach genome-wide significance in the case-control meta-analysis, two novel loci mapping to chr 8p32.1 and chr 11p14.1, and a chr 9q22.32 locus previously found in Chinese PCOS. The same chr 11p14.1 SNP, rs11031006, in the region of the follicle-stimulating hormone B polypeptide (FSHB) gene strongly associates with PCOS diagnosis and luteinizing hormone levels. These findings implicate neuroendocrine changes in disease pathogenesis

Agricultural Research Bulletins, Nos. 489-521

Volume 34, Bulletins 489-521. (489) Ownership of Iowa's Farmland; (490) Identification and Measurement of Inefficiencies in Leasing Systems; (491) Comparison of Resource Returns of Well-Organized Iowa Farms with Selected Nonfarm Opportunities; (492) Iowa Livestock Producers' Choice of Markets; (493) Methodology of Programming Small Watershed Development; (494) North Central Regional Potassium Studies: I. Field Studies with Alfalfa; (495) Organoleptic, Chemical, Physical and Microscopic Characteristics of Muscles in Eight Beef Carcasses, Differing in Age of Animal, Carcass Grade and Extent of Cooking; (496) Specialization and Pork Production Methods in Relation to Over-All Farm Resource Use and Integration; (497) Maternal Employment, Family Relations and Selected Personality, School-Related and Social-Development Characteristics of Children; (498) Soil Erosion Control in Western Iowa: Progress and Problems; (499) Response of Corn Yields in a Planosol Soil to Surface Drainage, Cropping System and Variable Fertilizer Treatments; (500) Description and Measurement of Rates of Early Mortality in the Pig; (501) Appraisal of the Federal Feed--Grains Programs; (502) Production, Income and Resource Changes from Farm Consolidation; (503) North Central Regional Potassium Studies; (504) Farm Size and Cost Relationships in Relation to Recent Machine Technology; (505) Poultry Supply Functions (The Relation of Technical Change to Output of Eggs, Broilers and Turkeys); (506) Derivation of Hydrographs for Small Watersheds from Measurable Physical Characteristics; (507) Short-Run Corn Supply and Fertilizer Demand Functions Based on Production Functions Derived from Experimental Data: a Static Analysis; (508) Occupational Plans of Iowa Farm Boys; (509) Factors Related to Employment of Wives in a Rural Iowa County; (510) Factors Related to Interreligious Marriages in Iowa, 1953-57; (511) Interregional Competition and Prospective Shifts in the Location of Livestock Slaughter; (512) Survival Rates Among Religiously Homogamous and Interreligious Marriages; (513) Effects of Light and Soil Moisture on Forest Tree Seedling Establishment; (514) Analysis of Direct-Payment Methods for Hogs to Increase Hog Producers' Incomes; (515) Distributed Lag Inventory Analyses; (516) Migration and Adjustment of Farm and Nonfarm Families and Adolescents in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; (517) Beef-Cattle Production Functions in Forage Utilization; (518) Production Functions and Methods of Specifying Optimum Fertilizer Use Under Various Uncertainty Conditions for Hay; (519) Profit-Maximizing Plans for Soil-Conserving Farming in the Spring Valley Creek Watershed in Southwest Iowa; (520) Estimation of Soil Moisture Under Corn; (521) Regional Changes in Grain Production: An Application of Spatial Linear Programming</p

Genome-wide association of polycystic ovary syndrome implicates alterations in gonadotropin secretion in European ancestry populations

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common, highly heritable complex disorder of unknown aetiology characterized by hyperandrogenism, chronic anovulation and defects in glucose homeostasis. Increased luteinizing hormone relative to follicle-stimulating hormone secretion, insulin resistance and developmental exposure to androgens are hypothesized to play a causal role in PCOS. Here we map common genetic susceptibility loci in European ancestry women for the National Institutes of Health PCOS phenotype, which confers the highest risk for metabolic morbidities, as well as reproductive hormone levels. Three loci reach genome-wide significance in the case–control meta-analysis, two novel loci mapping to chr 8p23.1 and chr 11p14.1, and a chr 9q22.32 locus previously found in Chinese PCOS. The same chr 11p14.1 SNP, rs11031006, in the region of the follicle-stimulating hormone B polypeptide (FSHB) gene strongly associates with PCOS diagnosis and luteinizing hormone levels. These findings implicate neuroendocrine changes in disease pathogenesis

Skeletal muscle mechanics, energetics and plasticity

Abstract The following papers by Richard Lieber (Skeletal Muscle as an Actuator), Thomas Roberts (Elastic Mechanisms and Muscle Function), Silvia Blemker (Skeletal Muscle has a Mind of its Own: a Computational Framework to Model the Complex Process of Muscle Adaptation) and Sabrina Lee (Muscle Properties of Spastic Muscle (Stroke and CP) are summaries of their representative contributions for the session on skeletal muscle mechanics, energetics and plasticity at the 2016 Biomechanics and Neural Control of Movement Conference (BANCOM 2016). Dr. Lieber revisits the topic of sarcomere length as a fundamental property of skeletal muscle contraction. Specifically, problems associated with sarcomere length non-uniformity and the role of sarcomerogenesis in diseases such as cerebral palsy are critically discussed. Dr. Roberts then makes us aware of the (often neglected) role of the passive tissues in muscles and discusses the properties of parallel elasticity and series elasticity, and their role in muscle function. Specifically, he identifies the merits of analyzing muscle deformations in three dimensions (rather than just two), because of the potential decoupling of the parallel elastic element length from the contractile element length, and reviews the associated implications for the architectural gear ratio of skeletal muscle contraction. Dr. Blemker then tackles muscle adaptation using a novel way of looking at adaptive processes and what might drive adaptation. She argues that cells do not have pre-programmed behaviors that are controlled by the nervous system. Rather, the adaptive responses of muscle fibers are determined by sub-cellular signaling pathways that are affected by mechanical and biochemical stimuli; an exciting framework with lots of potential. Finally, Dr. Lee takes on the challenging task of determining human muscle properties in vivo. She identifies the dilemma of how we can demonstrate the effectiveness of a treatment, specifically in cases of muscle spasticity following stroke or in children with cerebral palsy. She then discusses the merits of ultrasound based elastography, and the clinical possibilities this technique might hold. Overall, we are treated to a vast array of basic and clinical problems in skeletal muscle mechanics and physiology, with some solutions, and many suggestions for future research